When I was seventeen my dad said I could have the old family station wagon to drive if I would replace the water pump on it. He got me a water pump from a junk

When I was seventeen my dad said I could have the old family station wagon to drive if I would replace the water pump on it. He got me a water pump from a junk yard and the appropriate Chiltons manual for a 1973 Chevy Impala and it took me about four days (real mechanic time would probably be 4 hours) and then my dad sold me the car for $1. Some things about it stand out in memory. Engines were so big and un-compacted back then it was relatively easy to fit your hands and tools where ever they needed to go and pieces of the engine basically looked like what you’d expect them to be. The other thing I found out later was that my father was desperate to sell me the car, because it allowed him to get me off his insurance. I was a 17 year old boy, with one fender bender already under my belt and my parents had just bought a new Mercedes sedan. For insurance purposes, as a licensed driver living with them, without my own car the insurance company considered me a driver of the new car and the insurance was outrageous. After my dad sold me the car, I was off their main policy and on a separate one. Very tricky dad.